Valve ARG May Point To Early Portal 2 Release?

Put on your tin foil hats, folks, because this is about to get a bit conspiracy theory-ish. You may remember that intrepid fans discovered a number of bizarre ARG clues embedded in the recent Indie Potato Sack deal on Steam, that eventually led them to a picture of a bathysphere/diving bell. Some conjectured that this might be a reference to the Borealis research vessel that's slated to appear in Half Life 2 Episode 3, but apparently, the rabbit hole has now led many to believe that Portal 2 might release four days early on Steam. Full details below.

The proof? Well, first of all, a message purporting to be sent from an Aperture science employee (via Valve's Gabe Newell) contains this interesting string:

4/19/2011_7AM=4/15/2011_9AM

Since Portal 2 is slated for a US release on 19th April ("4/19/2011" using the American system) this started to set alarm bells ringing. Could the release date have been brought forward to "4/15/2011"... which is this Friday?

There are other interesting little tidbits too. Next game an announcement from the BIT.TRIP developers, which seems to have blown the gaffe wide open.

Like the other 12 games in Valve’s Potato Sack, it is rumored that playing BIT.TRIP BEAT between now and Portal 2′s ‘scheduled’ release date might increase the chances that Portal 2 is released early. Interesting idea…

Too obvious? Maybe. But we're getting numerous reports of Steam customers being able to pre-load Portal 2 as we speak, which in our estimation, is extremely early for a game that's supposed to be just under a week away. As before, keep your eyes on the Valve ARG Wiki!

Of course, this could still mean any number of things. Maybe we are in for the Episode 3 announcements of our wildest dreams? Or, just as likely, the whole thing is an elaborate hoax since the Potato Sack released on April 1st.